November 30, 2009

I tend to take a lot of things for granted and among those things is my family. They are always there for me when I need them for something or when I want to discuss something. With the recent loss of my grandfather I feel that life is rather fleeting and that it could end at any moment. There were things I wanted to know about him, there were things I had wanted to do with him and now I couldn’t. There are some things which may be hard to do when they are around, but what is even more saddening is that those very things can be even harder to do when they have passed on.

I also met a lot of family members I didn’t even know I had, but to be honest they were more extended family ie my dad’s uncle’s grandchild. I also had a chance to talk to my cousins from my dad’s side and just know what they do and a little bit about them. Funny how that you only ever seem to meet these people at events like weddings and funerals.

October 23, 2009

I had an idea, but by the time I remembered to write about it it had already disappeared on me. I hate it when that happens; when you lose sight of an idea that you are so fixated on in the past and cannot relive it. Such is life though, there are moments where you try to hold in your memory but over time it will fade like a newspaper clipping. The poem is a bit of a mishmash of ideas that decided to enter my brain based on that one theme.

—

hands

your hands slide over mine
holding like velcro straps;
tightly and never letting go
we clasp and merge two bodies
with one shared soul.

i trace over your supple palms
with my coarse fingers
and notice that our lifelines match
like fated lovers.

these hands have held each other tight,
spannings seas and galaxies
and even across the stars at night-
i can feel your fingers
wrapping around my own when we are apart,
it’s like our souls are linked.

one day i know, i will have to let go
to send you away.
i’ll rue the day when it comes,
but until then,
let me keep holding your hand;
because it’s the least that we can do
as lovers.

June 10, 2009

Australia has been on the butt of a lot of racist criticism in the past, sometimes rightfully so, but recently there have been a spate of attacks on people of Indian descent which seems to originate from the suburb of Harris Park. In response, the Indian community has banded together in protest, leading marches to raise awareness about this travesty.

However, this has unfortunately degraded into a race war where the Indians feel they are being targeted by the rest of Australia and feel they must rain retribution. Several Lebanese men have been attacked during the Indian protest even though their guilt is to be determined; the Indians actions are only adding fuel to the proverbial fire.

I have heard quite a lot of comments from various sources regarding this issue and do believe that a lot of things that have been said are plain ignorant.

No shit police won’t do anything if you don’t tell them about it. I have utmost respect for police officers who put their lives on the line in order to secure our neighbourhoods, but if they are not made aware of these crimes then they cannot respond! The earlier these crimes are reported the earlier police could work to solve these issues.

I also find the above statement immensely hard to believe given the fact that the population of Harris Park is only in the thousands. To have thousands of people being assaulted in that one suburb would mean that almost everybody that lived there would be assaulted once a day. Imagine you just walked out of your house on your way to work and get mugged. Imagine it happening EVERY DAY. You wouldn’t even get this sort of treatment in prison let alone in Australia!

Are the police doing enough to protect citizens in Harris Park? Probably not. Has this event blown out of proportion? I’d say so. Considering the fact that the typical Indian lies in a demographic which seem to be easy targets for attackers according to police.

People need to understand that although some of the fault lies with the way police deal with crime in trouble spots, the victims have to accept that the area they live in are not the safest and that these risks are escalated later at night. I am not saying that it is the victim’s fault, but rather that they should take proper precautions when travelling through certain suburbs. Or even work with police to find solutions which increase public safety.

Frankly speaking, there is a lot of shit that police officers go through and they don’t need the angry protests to encourage them to do their jobs. When they get out of hand it wastes already scarce police resources when they could be better utilized in finding solutions to these problems. Instead of working against each other and pointing fingers, they should work with each other to raise public awareness and find schemes to improve safety amongst Indian students.